I get cross when people, usually those with limited experience, say Los Cristianos is just another man-made tourist resort and you are unlikely to find anywhere authentic to eat. If they could be bothered to explore beyond their hotel they would find the gem we ate at on Friday night.

Despite having lived here for years I didn’t know it existed and Christine and Andrew found it purely by chance on one of their wanderings and had returned several times. From their description I gathered it was close to Ciuri, Ciuri which is the place that many years ago we had to return to as we couldn’t pay the bill. (Check out the link as that isn’t as bad as it sounds 🙂 )

We collected our friends and headed to this small and modestly furnished café / bar/ restaurant (not quite sure what to call it). It is by no means flash, in fact rather basic. No inside space just a covered courtyard, but top of the pile when serving tapas. The atmosphere feels comfortably “local”. For the numerous Tinerfernos who eat here it provides perfection where it counts, in the food, nicely served but not fussy, makes full use of fresh local produce and reflects in its food the roots of Tenerife.

The staff provide plate after plate of fresh tapas, all served with friendly advice and you just keep on ordering until you can eat no more.

As we were new we stuck to what we knew although the cod cheeks and the hake neck sounded interesting. I did order mussels but due to the amount of people that had been that day they had sold out.

In the end we chose patata bravas, chorizo cooked in cider, black pudding, crispy prawns with alioli and squid ink sauce, cordero and scrambled egg with mushrooms. Superb in every respect except for the scrambled egg which the others found had too much garlic for their taste and I hate eggs so for me it was never going to be a winner.

Previously Andrew had ordered from the wine list and it had been good but on Friday he chose a bottle of house red which came in a bottle without a label. When mentioned, we were told it is from a large container and I’m guessing it wasn’t the best as Andrew didn’t finish it. But it is a lesson learnt, unless you try you will never know.

The service was informal, but never sloppy. The night was cold and there is no indoor seating but blankets were provided. The later it got the more people turned up and at 10.00pm there wasn’t an empty table. In fact during our time there some tables had been filled several times.

Our bill per couple because each of the dishes above only served 2 people so we had double quantities, plus the wine, 3 vodka and cokes, a couple of colas and water came to €35 including tip. We were given a choice of chupitos (those freebie drinks at the end of a decent meal) so we chose ron miel and caramel vodka.

We will certainly return as the formula is simple – good nosh at good-value prices.

But don’t tell the tourists we don´t want them knowing all our secrets

2 Responses to Taberna Vasca – Los Cristianos

I’m fond of Los Cristianos even though it’s a few years now since I left Tenerife. I lived in Las Americas for almost 25 years and watched Los C grow and develop. It has a great choice of restauarnats and a lovely harbour and seafront. Taberna Vasca certainly sounds like a great choice for good food and good value.

Good food, good value and a lovely crowd in there, we got chatting to a group of 20 somethings who had recently rescued a dog, so we all had a lot in common despite being different nationalities and the age gap. We have 2 rescue dogs, friends have 3 rescue dogs and 3 cats.

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What makes the Red Queen’s Tenerife blog different?

For starters, what you read is not written by a professional travel writer. I do it because I remember what it was like to have the dream. To want to live somewhere with beautiful beaches, wild seas, sun filled days, glorious sunsets and whilst most of the time it is idyllic nowhere is Nirvana. So I tell you if it is good and I tell you if it is bad. The difference is I don´t do it because someone is paying me to say nice things about Tenerife.